10-year-old Drowns In District Pool

CALUMET PARK — A 10-year-old Calumet Park boy drowned in a Park District pool over the weekend, authorities said Sunday.

The death of Christopher Divinity was ruled an accidental drowning by the Cook County medical examiner's office, a spokesman for that office said Sunday.

The boy was pulled from a Calumet Park District pool shortly before 1:30 p.m. Saturday after his friends found him at the bottom of the pool.

"He had been down there for a while," said the boy's great-aunt, Vera Divinity. "We don't know exactly what happened. The police haven't said anything. We can't get any information from the city. They should come and tell us something--even if it's just a bit of news."

Calumet Park officials declined to comment on the incident Sunday.

The friends who discovered Christopher told his relatives that they had been playing in the pool when Christopher got separated from the trio. The boys last spotted Christopher swimming nearby on a floating board in the deep section of the pool. Then a girl, apparently the board's owner, asked for it back.

Shortly after, the boys realized Christopher was missing and later found him on the floor of the pool near where they had played. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Blue Island, where he was pronounced dead.

Family members said witnesses told them it took nearly five minutes before the lifeguards realized there was a problem in the pool. They contend that the large, crowded pool may have had only one lifeguard overseeing swimmers at the time.

Christopher, who would have entered the 4th grade at Burr Oak Elementary School in Calumet Park, was not an experienced swimmer. Family members said he rarely went to the pool but was allowed to go Saturday because an adult neighbor offered to supervise the boys.